As a reminder to our readers, Washington Snapshot will be taking a break next week and the week of the 28th. Activate in August With many Members of Congress out of town and back home in their districts for the August recess, much of the action has shifted away from Washington and toward local…

News from the Hill Senate Finance Committee Markup of "Tax Extenders" Package This Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee convened to markup a bill that would renew 52 of the “tax extenders,” including the charitable provisions, for the 2015 and 2016 tax years. As our readers will recall, these…

News from the Hill The Council Visits the Hill This past Monday, July 13th, representatives from the Community Foundations National Standards Board (CFNSB) and the Council’s Public Policy and Legal Affairs Team met with congressional staff from the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance…

News from the Hill Senate Tax Reform Working Groups Release Reports The Senate Tax Reform Working Groups released their reports this week. The five groups were organized by Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-OR) to assess needs and priorities for future tax code reform.…

Leaders in the Field Speak Out Philanthropic Sector Unites to Challenge Skeptic The Council and other sector leaders have been responding to a New York Times opinion piece written by David Callahan, who offers some misguided views of the charitable sector. In a response published by the New York…

News from the Hill Tax Reform Work Still Ongoing, McConnell Says This week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) expressed his doubts that comprehensive tax reform will occur in the next two years. However, McConnell emphasized that even without comprehensive reform, Congress will still…

Global Policy Update This past Wednesday, the Council on Foundations and the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL) hosted a conference call on China's Draft Law on Management of Overseas NGOs and its potential impact on U.S. funders and other organizations working in and with China.…

News from the Hill America Gives More Act Setback Yesterday, the Senate passed two trade bills by replacing the language of H.R. 644, the America Gives More Act, with trade provisions. This legislative practice of taking a bill that has passed one chamber, gutting the language and replacing with a…

Call to Action! We need you — foundation leaders on the ground in your communities — to reach out to your Senators today and encourage them to support community investments now. As a constituent, your voice is invaluable! You can send an email to your Senators to urge the Senate Finance Committee…

News from the Hill Yesterday, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would exempt donations to 501(c)(4)s, (5)s, and (6)s from the gift tax. As POLITICO points out, this would exempt a broad category of political organizations from the gift tax. Current law is ambiguous on whether donors…

The Council’s legal team advised that a donor advised fund may make a distribution to another donor advised fund, without limitation and without the need to exercise expenditure responsibility. The technical explanation for the Pension Protection Act explicitly states: “A taxable distribution does…

News from the Hill As a reminder, the issues that impact charitable organizations and individual donors fall within the “business” and “individual” working groups. The business working group, which will address tax provisions that impact the business and operations of charitable organizations, is…

House to Take Up Charitable Bills McCarthy's Memo Gives Signals According to a memo that House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA-23) circulated this week, the House is anitcipated to introduce and markup bills on the three charitable tax extenders: the IRA charitable rollover, enhanced…

Election Day is next Tuesday, November 4th. Get out the vote! News from the Hill Homestretch on The America Gives More Act The midterm elections are here, which means Congress returns to D.C. in less than 2 weeks. After they return on November 12, your members of Congress will only have about…

Foundations to Senate: Vote on the America Gives More Act Contact your Senators Today Congress returned to D.C. this week, which means it’s time for a final push to get your Senators to take action on the America Gives More Act (H.R. 4719). After this week, your lawmakers will be in D.C. for merely…

Foundations to Senate: Vote on the America Gives More Act Contact your Senators Today Congress returned to D.C. this week, which means it’s time for a final push to get your Senators to take action on the America Gives More Act (H.R. 4719). After this week, your lawmakers will be in D.C. for merely…